My [Filter] Bubbles!

Eli Praiser is the author of the book “The Filter Bubble.” A term he coined that describes what is happening today to the users of the internet and the personalized experiences each individual goes through when surfing the web.

Praiser gave a 9 minute TED talk in which he summarized what a filter bubble is. In his speech, Praiser mentions major websites, like Facebook and Google, and how they use algorithms that filter content tailored to each individual user of their websites. Basically, these algorithms keep track off the things that you click, the websites that you use, and the things that you search for on search engines. Subsequently, the algorithms work their magic to predict what you might want to search for or look at in the future and filter out information you may not be interested in.

Although very convenient, these filter bubbles may not be benefiting society in the long run. Like Praiser said in his TED talk, “The internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see.” I agree with this statement. Furthermore, I agree that filter bubbles are creating narrow-minded internet users because with these filter bubbles; we are not exposed to the world as a whole. With this comes a long lasting effect of oblivion and unintended ignorance to internet users. At the end of the day, it is not the user’s choice what he or she is exposed to on a website, but the websites choice.

Works Cited

Pariser, Eli. “Beware Online “filter Bubbles”” TED, Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles
Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think. N.p.: Penguin, 2011. Print.